Prescription Drug Addiction

The Narconon drug and alcohol rehabilitation program helps people recover from prescription drug addiction, no matter what path they took to arrive at that addiction.

At one time, not that long ago, there weren’t that many prescription drugs on the market. There were a number of antibiotics, morphine and the opium preparation called laudanum. In the 1940s, pharmaceutical companies began gearing up, releasing hydrocortisone, blood pressure medications, tranquilizers and antipsychotics. Miltowns were the first tranquilizer on the market, followed by Quaaludes and Valium. Seconal and Nembutal were available for those who could not sleep. And the boom was on.
As the popularity of prescription drugs grew, more people became dependent on them. And along with dependency, some people lost their lives to them. Judy Garland died of an overdose of Seconal and Marilyn Monroe succumbed to enough Nembutal and chloral hydrate (another sleeping drug) to kill ten men.

This trend of losing celebrities to prescription drugs has continued to this day, with the deaths of Heath Ledger and Anna Nicole Smith, among others, being attributed to prescription drug overdoses after the fact of drug dependence.

Now, government surveys indicate that more than seven million people in America alone abuse prescription drugs each month.

Two Different Paths to Abuse and Addiction

One of the problems with prescription drugs is that there are two routes to abuse and addiction. The first is by way of legitimate use. Many people take medications like painkillers Vicodin, Lortab or OxyContin or benzodiazepines like Valium and Xanax per their doctors’ prescriptions. As their bodies learn to tolerate the drugs, their dosages must go up to keep symptoms at bay. At some point, many people find that their doctors will no longer increase the dosage or perhaps will no longer provide a prescription, telling the patient they must wean off the drug.

By this time, many people are so dependent on their pills that they feel they must take these drugs simply to feel “normal.” When they resort to doctor-shopping to get as many prescriptions as they need to maintain their desired dosages, or prescription fraud or theft, they run the risk of losing everything if they are arrested for these crimes.

Drug Taking Becomes Recreational

The second path to prescription drug abuse and addiction is through recreational abuse. A young person goes to a party where someone has obtained prescription OxyContin from a relative and they decide to try this drug that others are saying is such a “good time.” They try it once, maybe twice and then find that they crave the drug and can’t quit. In too many cases, one of the first few times a young person has taken the drug resulted in their death.

Some people will become and stay addicted to prescription drugs for years, after getting started on them recreationally. It’s as true for opioids as it is for benzodiazepines or stimulants.

No matter how a person gets addicted to prescription drugs, the fact is that getting one’s life back after addiction very often involves drug rehabilitation.

Getting Off the Drugs and Into a Clean and Sober Life at Narconon

To those who wish to break the pattern of drug use or drinking that is destroying their lives, Narconon provides a unique drug recovery program that works.

Substance abuse treatment for alcohol consumption or drug abuse must work holistically for it to have a lasting effect. In other words, it must treat the damaging effects of substance abuse on the body but then it must also help the addict learn how to build a new drug-free life, sometimes from the ground up, when addiction has destroyed everything.

A thorough detoxification followed by counseling and life skills training enable a person in a drug program to see things in a whole new light so they can live an enjoyable, productive life again. This is the way the Narconon drug and alcohol rehabilitation program works.